Concert is more than a tribute

Santa Fe trumpeter Jan McDonald says the Sunday concert he’s organized isn’t just a tip of the hat to jazz legends Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker.

“What we’re also trying to do is to explore the contrapuntal writing of Mulligan,” McDonald said.

Mulligan, who played baritone saxophone, was a long-time composer and arranger. He arranged for the Stan Kenton and Claude Thornhill big bands, among others.

	The Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan Project Concert WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday WHERE: Santa Fe Center for Spiritual Living, 550 Camino de los Marquez HOW MUCH: $20 at the door

Mulligan and Baker, a trumpeter, were among the leading musicians associated with the so-called “cool” jazz of the late 1940s and ‘50s.

The concert at the Santa Fe Center for Spiritual Living will open with Mulligan’s “Festive Minor,” and feature such other Mulligan tunes as “Bark for Barksdale,” “Apple Core” and “Song for Strayhorn,”McDonald said.

Most of the 13 compositions on the concert program are Mulligan’s; McDonald will include his own tune titled “Chet-ish.”

“I grew up thinking about Satchmo (Louis Armstrong) and the Dukes of Dixieland but Baker has also been one of my favorites. His melodic style is just beautiful,” McDonald said.

“And I felt that Mulligan is an under-rated composer and musician,” he added. “He was such a genius.”

Joining McDonald in the performance will be Arlen Asher on baritone sax, Milo “Rob” Jaramillo on bass, John Bartlit on drums and Bert Dalton on piano.

Interestingly, Mulligan and Baker often played in a piano-less quartet for which the saxophonist wrote arrangements.

Mulligan performed on Miles Davis’ album “Birth of the Cool.” He also wrote and arranged some of the compositions on the recording.

McDonald said the concert has been a long time in the making. He had planned to present it more than a year ago but Asher became sick.

“We put it on hold. Arlen got better, so we decided to proceed,” McDonald said.